


To your union

by godbewithyouihavedone



Series: Hamilton Soulmate Mark AU [3]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Companionate Marriage, Gen, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Slavery, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 08:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5450423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godbewithyouihavedone/pseuds/godbewithyouihavedone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The slave is bright-eyed behind his complacent stance, calm despite the manacles hanging from his wrists.  When the auctioneer turns him round, all can see that “Hercules” snakes up his spine.</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Final set of soulmate mark AU ficlets.  James Madison, Hercules Mulligan, and Philip Hamilton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To your union

**I.**

James Madison is not married because he does not prefer the company of women. His confirmed bachelorhood is as much an open secret as that of Baron von Steuben.

None suspect that there is a woman’s name down the side of his chest. It perplexes him, since “Dolley” is no mother or sister of his. When he is in bed, wracked with coughs, the letters dance up and down his ribs.

Thomas says he needs to find himself a wife. Quite hypocritical, coming from the widower of Monticello whose right arm looks like stale meat. But Thomas knows how James feels about him. If suggesting matrimony calms his nervousness around the subject, it can be endured.

Aaron Burr cannot imagine anyone happy without a wife. Even as Theodosia is wasting into nothingness, Burr still has a woman to introduce him to.

The name, though. Dolley. Surely it is her. He does not know whether to run towards or away.

Dolley Payne is recently widowed from the yellow fever. She is beautiful and laughs often, like the May air itself descended to brighten all she touches. He does not want her, but she reminds him of resilience.

She gives up her religion to marry him. When they go to bed he will never tell her what he thinks of. They are rarely apart, which he imagined to be more uncomfortable, but she steadies him.

“I consider you my dearest friend,” she says, laying out the fine china. “My John, he and I were lovers, but we are great friends.”

He almost drops his drink. “Yes, madam,” James says. He did not think she knew.

“I am so glad you are my friend, and that I hold your name,” Dolley says, and lays down the last bowl. “It is all I wanted, someone to care for my children and build a family with.”

In that moment, it is difficult to describe how much he adores her.

**II.**

“He died over a thousand years ago,” he tells the women he beds of the "Cato" on his back. “I’m that ardent of a Republican. Or perhaps I truly love the play.”

Then the British take New York, and he teaches himself to lie for reasons other than jokes and flattery. He concocts his plan and visits the auction.

The slave is bright-eyed behind his complacent stance, calm despite the manacles hanging from his wrists. When the auctioneer turns him round, all can see that “Hercules” snakes up his spine.

Hercules outbids all who try for him. He doesn’t need to ask his name.

Cato is amazing, almost invisible. He never fails his routes between Hercules, Salomon, and Hamilton. They smuggle Howe’s movements to Washington under the guise of fabrics and advertisements. Cato does not know what he carries, for he cannot speak German, nor read English.

They capture him, and Hercules’s breath stops in worry. His man returns to him beaten. He snarls, “I told them nothing, Mulligan, sir,” and Hercules decides it is far past time to educate him.

He barges into Cato’s quarters one day. “There may be an attempt on the General’s life, and Governor Livingston. I need you to be ready to move—”

He pauses. Cato stole a mirror, and uses it to read up his own back, now that he can recognize the letters. “It’s bad luck, the birth-blood sign,” he says. “Masters never heed it. The worst is when it’s your child or your wife. You should not have bought me for the mark.”

“We are destined, yes,” Hercules says. “And you know why. You did not break, even under torture. We have changed the course of a war. Together, we are great.”

Cato shakes his head. “I cannot be the most important man you will know. I am not even a man to you.”

“I will free you,” Hercules says. “After the war, I will free you, and we will still be like this.”

After the war, Washington names him a hero. Men line up to have garments made by the great spy Mulligan. Hamilton is able to visit him again, spending hours recalling when they lived together. He keeps his promise and frees his slave from the bond of the law.

And Cato leaves him.

**III.**

When Philip was born, it confused his parents. "Angelica" was written on his foot, but his aunt had no such marker. Then their second child, a year later, had “Philip” already on her ankle. They did not need to think of what to name her.

Philip cannot remember not knowing. “Marked siblings are special,” his mother said. “You and I match.” She shrugged off her shawl, showing him another “Angelica”, in his aunt’s lovely handwriting. He had traced it, a connection with his dear mother, a promise. He would be the most loving brother possible.

Later, he learned to hate that mark she bore. He heard what they said about his mother after the reports on Maria Reynolds. If she and his father had each other’s names, wisdom said, he would not have behaved as he did. Philip knows it is all lies.

“Will I ever find a husband?” Angelica asks him. “When he would know I could not have his name?”

“You will take his family name, that is what matters,” Philip says. “You are a prize, my dear sister, and our connection is a blessing.”

He sits down with her at the piano. The worry drifts from her form as they begin to play. At the end, when they sit pressed arm to arm, she is smiling like the sun.

He challenges George Eacker. Philip knows that after what they have endured, he cannot allow any more shame to come to his family. Angelica needs to be married, to be happy.

Any bloodshed he was responsible for would be on her conscience as well. She would worry that she could not stop him. So he raises his father’s pistol, barrel pointed at the sky. Before the end of the count, pain like nothing else blooms through his chest.

The world swims. After that, he is conscious one moment and drifting the next. He knows his parents are beside him, crying. He is apologizing for all he has done in his short life, all he has been unable to accomplish. Every inch of his body aches, and he only wants to rest, but if he does, he will leave Angelica alone. He never meant to make her live without him. He hopes she can forgive his thoughtlessness.


End file.
